Graduate students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering who are also members of the team, Machine Dynamics Laboratory won first place in the IEEE VTS Motor Vehicles Challenge, 2018. The members include Lee Woong (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Program), Jeong Hae-seong and Park Do-hyun (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Integrated Master’s-Doctor’s Program). IEEE stands for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and VTS stands for Vehicular Technology Society. The team was invited to the IEEE VPPC (Vehicle Power And Propulsion Conference) held in Chicago, IL, USA, from the 27th to the 30th of August this year, which they presented their research findings and earned 3000 dollars as their first place prize.

(From left) The team leader, Lee Woong (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Program) and two team members Jeong Hae-seong and Park Do-hyun (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Integrated Master’s-Doctor’s Program) were able to receive first prize in the VTS challenge with the guidance of their advisor for their team, professor Kim Nam-wook (Department of Mechanical Engineering).

The VTS challenge competes for minimization of energy consumption and aims to develop a control strategy that can be applied to real cars. This year, the challenge was to minimize the mileage energy consumption of General Motors (GM) hybrid vehicle, ‘Volt 1st gen.' 52 teams from 20 countries participated in the challenge.

The online posting regarding the opening of the VTS challenge were uploaded on January 5th, so the team had two months of preparation before the energy management submission deadline in March. The results were announced the following month. In the evaluation process, the jurors for the competition run the simulation model by themselves and whichever vehicle that consumes the least energy wins first place.

The Machine Dynamics Laboratory team applied one of the optimal control theory called, ‘Pontryagin’s minimum principle.' It decides the relative value of the quantity of fuel and electricity and minimizes it. The system itself constantly monitors the remaining oil and electricity and decides whether to use more fuels or electric motor. Without a doubt, the final results had to be good due to the characteristic of hybrid cars to increase energy efficiency when the remainder quantity is similar.

Members of the Machine Dynamics Laboratory explained that they have been researching cars for 3 years, yet this was the first time to receive such an honorable reward. (Photo courtesy of Lee)

The VTS challenge is held every year but with a different subject and vehicle to work with. “Nothing is for certain yet, but maybe for next year’s competition, our team members will participate as leaders.” Lee Woong (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Program) who actively took part in the VTS challenge as a leader went on to say, “challenge yourselves, youth!”